The Center for Inter-American Legal Assistance in Human Rights (Calidh) revealed a series of reports that it has presented to international human rights organizations on the serious human rights crisis that Nicaragua has been going through since April 2018. The organization has denounced in various international forums a series of cases, among which the attacks on freedom of expression and of the press stand out.
In one of the reports, dated October 9 of this year, Calidh denounces that since the return of Daniel Ortega to the Nicaraguan Presidency, the Sandinista regime implements an independent “media censorship plan” that denies them the right to Access to public information. sayings attacks on the free press they include the closure of radio frequencies and confiscation of media, among others.
“To date, it has closed 53 media outlets of all kinds at the national level and 16 information spaces that were transmitted through these media outlets,” the report highlights.
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Calidh also expressed concern about the creation of a media monopoly that the presidential family has built by maintaining control of a number of radio and television stations across the country. The agency points out that this has been possible thanks to the “close collaboration” with the Nicaraguan Institute of Telecommunications and Posts (TELCOR).
“The relatives of President Ortega have control of (the) channels 2, 4, 8, 4, 13, 22 and the state 6. In addition, they control the official Radio Nicaragua and the medium 19 Digital. With the 2018 protests, both freedom of expression and of the press have been limited and reduced with the dismantling of the rule of law,” the Calidh report underlines.
It also addresses the death of journalist Ángel Gahona, murdered during the first days of the 2018 social protests in the city of Bluefields and that the case continues in impunity. The document details the confiscation of the newspaper La Prensa, Confidencial and 100% Noticias, private buildings that were delivered to State institutions such as the Ministry of Health (Minsa) and the National Technological Institute (Inatec).
In addition, it denounces the imprisonment of journalists Lucía Pineda Ubau, Miguel Mora, Jaime Arellano, Miguel Mendoza and Juan Lorenzo Holmann, the latter general manager of La Prensa. “They have suffered various forms of human rights violations in their confinement, in addition to being sentenced through judicial processes full of violations of the guarantees of due process included in the Pact,” the report reads.
